System of teledynamic control



June 2, 1925- 1,540,121

.1. H. HAMMOND, JR

SYSTEM OF TELEDYNAMIC CONTROL Original Filed March 21L, 191.3

WITNESSES MENTOR M ..)//w/4/- .mm

Patented June 2, 1925.

, UNITED; STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN HAYS HAMMOND, JR., 015 GLOUCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS.

SYSTEM OF TELEDYNAKIC CONTROL.

Application filed March 21, 1913, Serial No. 755,841. Renewed July 24,1928.

T 0 all whom it may concern:

,usefuL Improvements in Systems of Teledynamic Control, of which thefollowing is a specification.

This invention relates to systems for controlling and operatingmechanisms at a distance, and relates more particularly to systems wheretransmitted radiant energyis employed to cause power to be applied by anengine to the operation of steering gear and other mechanisms on atorpedo or other Vessel.

The accompanying drawing shows a receiving station on my system, whichmay be located on a torpedo or other vessel. It is to be understood.that there is a corresponding transmitting station, capable of sendingout tuned electric oscillations.

In the drawing, A is a receiving antenna, in circuit with the inductancecoil L and variable condenser C, and grounded at E. The oscillationcircuit L C, comprising the inductance coil L and the variable condenserC, is coupled to the antenna circuit by means of the coils L and L, andboth this oscillation circuit and the antenna circuit are tuned to thewave length of the corresponding transmitting station. By means of thestopping condenser D and the rectifier R, unidirectional currentimpulses are supplied to the relay F, which. when energized, allowscurrent to flow from battery through the electromagnet G. The latter,when energized, attracts the armature H, and so causes the pawl I toengage with the ratchet wheel J and rotate the latter. The ratchet wheelJ is attached to the rotatable cylindrical commutator K. on which arethe contact pieces K, K K and K. The contact pieces are in pairs, K, Kand, K K

the members of each pair being electricallyconnected, and they makecontact, respectively with the brushes V V V and V". There are similarpairs of contact pieces around the surface of the commutator, which arenot shown, each pair being separated by a neutral space.

The brushes V and V are in circuit with battery B and electromagnet M,and the p V and V -are electrically connected with each other and withone pole of the battery B, the other pole of which is connected to theelectromagnets M and M, as shown. This arrangement enables one batteryto be used instead of two, and three conductors instead of four betweenthe brushes and the eleetromagnets.

Q, is a gas engine or other prime mover which drives the torpedo orother vessel, and which also turns an auxiliary shaft 0, on which is afriction wheel 0. P and P are friction wheels which are normally out ofcontact with friction wheel 0, and which are attached to shafts p and p,respectively. Shafts p and p can rotate in fixed bearings at their rightends, but have a range of linear movement at their left end sufficientto enable the friction wheels P and P to engage with the friction wheel0 when the armatures N and N, on the shafts p and 12, respectively, areattracted by the electromagnets M and M, respectively. Attached to rightend of the shaft 17 is the friction wheel T which is in contact with theintermediate friction wheel t, the latter being in contact with thefriction wheel U. Attached to the right end of the shaft p is thefriction T, which is in direct contact with the friction wheel U.Friction wheel U is attached to a shaft a, which can rotate in a fixedhearing. at the other-end of which shaft is the bevel gearing WW thelatter being operatively connected with the rudder Z. Y is a projectingrod or piece on the gear wheel W, and X and X are fixed pins which limitthe movement of Y and so act as stops for the gearing IVW and rudder Z.S and S are springs, attaehedat one end to the shafts p and 7), and attheir The operation of my invention is as follows :\Vhen electric wavesin tune with the receiving antenna circuit A L C and the oscillationcircuit 1 C are received, the relay F will be operated through thestopping condcnser D and rectifier R, and the electromagnet G will beenergized. Armature II will therefore be attracted and pawl I will turnratchet wheel J and commutator K. It commutator K is turned so thatcontacts K and K make contact with the brushes V and V, electroluagnet Mwill be energized by means of battery B and will attract armature N.Friction wheel P will therefore be brought into contact with frictionwheel 0. If wheel is turning in .a counter-clockwise direction, viewedfrom astern, wheel P, shaft p and wheel T will be turned in a clockwisedirection, intermediate wheel t will be turned in a counter-clockwise direction, and wheel l sha'l't u and the bevel gear wheel \l' will all beturned in a clockwise direction. The rudder Z will therefore be turnedto starboard. The rudder can turn only until the rod Y strikes the pinX, when the rudder and the bevel gearing will be stopped and thefrictlon wheels will slip past each other.

\Vhen the next signal is received by the receiving station thecommutator K will be turned to one of its neut all positions, theelectromagnct M will be tie-energized, the wheel P will move out ofcontact with wheel 0 and the spring S will turn shaft 1), frictionwheels T, t and U, bevel gearing W'\ and rudder Z to their originalposition.

lVhen the next signal is received, the commutator K .will be turned sothat contacts K and K* make contact with brushes V and V. ElcctromagnetM will therefore be energized and will attract armature N, which willbring wheel Pinto contact with wheel 0. If O turns in acounter-clockwise direction, as before, wheel P, shaft p and wheel Twill be turned in a clockwise direction, wheel U, shatt u and the bevelgear wheel will all be turned in a counterclockwise direction, and therudder Z will be turned to port. The rudder can turn only until the rodY strikes the. pin X.

The next signal received by the receiving station will turn thecommutator K to a neutral position, the electromagnet M will bede-energized, the wheel P will move out of contact with wheel 0. and thespring S will turn sha it p, friction wheels T, and U, bevel gearing "V'and rudder Z to their ori inal position. This will complete the cycle ofoperations, and the next signal received will cause the rudder to beturned to starboard, as above described.

The function of intermediate wheel t is to cause wheel U to be moved inone direction when wheel P makes contact with wheel 0, and in theopposite direction when wheel 1" makes contact with 0. Engine Q issupposed to be turning shaft- 0 and wheel 0 continuously in onedirection while the above described cycle of operations is in progress,and while in this description I have assumed the direction of rotationto be counter-clockwise, it might just as well be clockwise. when, ofcourse, the direction of turnin of the rudder, for any given position 0?the commutator K, will be the reverse of that described above.

Q, may be a gas or gasoline engine, a compressed air enginc, a steamengine, an electric motor, or any other kind of engine or motor, and itmay be used to drive a propeller or for any other purpose. The gearingT, t, U and T might consist of toothed wheels instead of frictionwheels. I may use receiving circuits tuned to group frequency oramplitude variation frequency as well as to wave length; and in general,I do not confined myself to the particular apparatus and mechanisms hereshown, but various changes and modifications, within the knowledge ofthose skilled inthe art, may be made in the particular apparatus shownand described herein, without departing from the spirit of my invention,provided the means set forth in the following claims be employed. 7

Having thus'deseribed my invention, I claim 1. The combination with adrivin element arranged to rotate about a fixec axis of a flexible shaftnormally out of operative engagement with said driving element, a fixedbearing by which said shaft is sup ported to rotate about a fixed axisextending longitudinally of said shaft, means to flex said shaft to movesaid shaft into operative engagement with said driving element to berotated thereby, and yielding means secured to said shaft andautomatically operative to reverse the rotation of said shaft and returnsaid shaft to an initial position of rotation after it has been rotatedby and released from said driving element.

2. The combination with a driving ele ment arranged to rotate about afixed axis of a flexible shaft normally out of operative engagement withsaid driving element, a fixed hearing by which said shaft is sup--ported to rotate about a fixed axis extending longitudinally of saidshaft, means to flex said shaft to move. said shaft into operativeengagement; with said driving element to be rotated thereby, andyielding means secured to said shaft and automatically operative toreverse the rotation of said shaft and return said shaftto an initialposition of rotation after it has been rotated by and released from saiddriving element, and steering means controlled-by said shaft.

3. The combination with a motor, and a friction disc driven thereby, ofa pair of flexible shafts normally out of engagement with said discjournalled so as to rotate about fixed axes extending longitudinally ofthe shafts respectively, a pair of magnets for selectively flexing saidshafts into operative engagement with said disc to be rotated thereby,and yielding means secured to each of said shafts and automaticallyoperative to reverse the rotation of the respective shaft until returnedto its initial position after it has been rotated by and released fromengagement with said friction disc.

4. The combination with a motor, and a friction disc driven thereby, ofa pair of flexible shafts normall out of engagement with said discjourna led so as to rotate about fixed axes extending longitudinally ofthe shafts respectively, a air of magnets for selectively flexing said safts into operative engagement with said disc to be rotated thereby, a.stop for each of said shafts for limiting the movement thereof, andyielding means secured to each of said shafts and automaticallyoperative to reverse the rotation of the respective shaft until returnedto its initial position after it has been rotated by and released fromengagement with said friction disc.

This specification signed and witnessed this 18th day of March, A. D.,1913.

JOHN HAYS HAMMOND, J u. Signed in the presence of:

M. P. WINNE, DOROTHY F. DAMES.

